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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24639451">While you were Sleeping</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilmare_Ilse/pseuds/Ilmare_Ilse'>Ilmare_Ilse</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Coco Puffs: The complete Collection [26]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hawaii Five-0 (2010)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s10e22 Aloha (Goodbye), Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Schmoop, Season 10 Spoilers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:55:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,310</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24639451</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilmare_Ilse/pseuds/Ilmare_Ilse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>So Danny talked in his sleep. It wasn’t while he was dreaming, like some people did, but if you asked him something while he was sleeping, he would sit up and have a conversation with you (one that may or may not make any sense), and he wouldn’t remember anything about it when he woke up.</p>
<p>He has one of those conversations with Steve when he's on the way to the airport.</p>
<p>Another Fix-It for the Series Finale, this one a lot less angry.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Steve McGarrett &amp; Danny "Danno" Williams, Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Coco Puffs: The complete Collection [26]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/591349</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>188</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>While you were Sleeping</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It had been an impulsive decision. Danny was at the hospital, but recovering without complications, and Steve was having a hard time handling everything that had happened. </p>
<p>It was after another sleepless night that Danny took one look at him and started pestering him, arguing that he needed to do something or Danny himself would check himself out of the hospital and get him to a shrink.</p>
<p>That’s when Steve decided that he needed to take a trip. He needed some space, so he bought a ticket to Los Angeles, deciding that he would visit Mary before he started his trip, to go off and try to find whatever his life was missing.</p>
<p>Evidently it wasn’t what Danny was expecting, but Steve figured it was a good idea. Danny wouldn’t have to worry about him, and he would get the time and space to sort through everything that had happened on his own.</p>
<p>Seven days later, and it was time to leave. Danny had been released from the hospital the day before, and thankfully had accepted to stay at Steve’s until he was in better shape.</p>
<p>Steve said his goodbyes to Danny, trying to ignore the voice at the back of his head that said he was making a mistake. Having the whole team there was a pleasant surprise, and it made him feel a little better for leaving if he knew that Danny had people to take care of him.</p>
<p>Still, Steve still needed some reassurance that he was doing the right thing, so on the way to the airport, he decided to give Danny a call.</p>
<p>Danny replied after four or five rings. “Yeah, what?”</p>
<p>“Hello to you too, Danno,” Steve said, amused.</p>
<p>He could hear a tired sigh from the other side of the line. “How can I help you, Steven?”</p>
<p>Steve hesitated. “Ehh, it’s nothing. I just wanted to check on you, make sure that you went back inside. I don’t want you to get heatstroke on top of everything else, buddy.”</p>
<p>Danny was silent for a beat before he replied. “Really? That’s the only reason you called,” he said, questioning.</p>
<p>Steve winced, lifting his hand to scratch his head in a nervous gesture. “Well, yeah. I care about you, and I wanted to make sure that you were alright. And you are, right? There’s no reason for me to think about staying,” Steve said, not able to stop his rambling.</p>
<p>Danny took too long to answer for Steve’s taste. “I’m ok, I think. But I don’t know why you’re leaving to be honest.”</p>
<p>Steve tensed, getting ready to ask the taxi driver to turn around. “What do you mean, Danno?”</p>
<p>“Well,” Danny started around a yawn, “you left the frittata on the stove, and the popcorn in the oven. I don’t think they go well together, and Eddie doesn’t know how to flip the pancakes. I think that breakfast is going to be ruined, and Bridget is coming to lunch, so we have to teach her to play the trumpet,” Danny explained in a very patient tone.</p><hr/>
<p>So Danny talked in his sleep. It wasn’t while he was dreaming, like some people did, but if you asked him something while he was sleeping, he would sit up and have a conversation with you (one that may or may not make any sense), and he wouldn’t remember anything about it when he woke up.</p>
<p>Matt used to tease him about it, sometimes even recording their conversations in a cassette, and playing them for the whole family in the morning.</p>
<p>For Steve it was a bit confusing at first. Sometimes when he called Danny in the middle of the night for a case, he would get a sleepy “ok, come pick me up” reply, only to find Danny deeply asleep in his bed when he got there. It all would lead to a indignant Danny arguing why Steve would break into Danny’s house without even telling him he was coming, and Steve explaining that he had called and talked to him, so he had done nothing wrong (other than breaking into Danny’s house when he hadn’t opened the door).</p>
<p>With time, Steve figured out that it only happened when Danny was exhausted after too many sleepless nights, or if he was on painkillers or sick. He also learned to figure out if he was talking to Danny or if it was Zombie-Danny, as he liked to call him.</p>
<p>It didn’t happen too often, but it was a source of amusement for Steve, and he was mostly a good sport about it.</p>
<p>Steve learned that Zombie-Danny was great at answering yes or no questions, but if you needed him to elaborate, he would come up with some pretty random answers. Anything from stuff he usually said to his children, to stuff he had used on suspects in recent cases. When Steve got Zombie-Danny, he knew he would either have to go to Danny’s place to wake him up or send him a text and let him join them when he actually woke up.</p><hr/>
<p>Steve tried not to laugh at Danny’s random answer, relaxing. “Danny, are you sleeping?” He asked, wondering what Zombie-Danny would come up with next.</p>
<p>“No I’m not! The dentist hasn’t come over yet.” Danny argued, in a very convincing tone.</p>
<p>“You better not be sleeping in that chair, or you’re going to be pretty sore once you wake up,” Steve warned.</p>
<p>“Nah, Eddie doesn’t know how to read yet. I’ll teach him tomorrow,” Danny explained.</p>
<p>Steve chuckled, noticing that they were arriving at the airport. “Listen Danny. I gotta go, but I’ll try to call you before we take off, OK?”</p>
<p>Danny chuckled in amusement. “No you won’t.”</p>
<p>“Of course I will!” Steve argued. “I just don’t want to go through security with a phone on my hand. I didn’t bring my badge with me, so the TSA people are not going to be very kind if I do!”</p>
<p>Danny huffed. “You always do this, you say one thing and then you do something else,” he grumbled.</p>
<p>Steve paid the taxi, got out of the car and started moving towards the security area, checking his bag to make sure that he had his boarding pass. “That is not true, when have I ever told you something and done something else, as you put it?”</p>
<p>“When you helped with the thing with Grace, you said that I wasn’t alone in this island anymore,” Danny argued, “but I couldn’t find the…”</p>
<p>Steve stopped in his tracks, almost dropping his bag, whatever else Danny had said was lost to him as he tried to remember how to breathe again.</p><hr/>
<p>Danny had a crick in his neck. He dimly remembered someone warning him that he’d wake up sore if he kept sleeping where he was, but the sun was nice, and he hadn’t felt like going back inside to see all the long faces, so he was going to keep sleeping where he was. He could worry about his neck later.</p>
<p>At some point Eddie had come over and laid his head over Danny’s knee, the good one, so he hadn’t been on his own, but now he had gone off somewhere, barking happily.</p>
<p>Danny tried to shift, looking for a more comfortable position to go back to sleep, but a big hand cradled his head. “Danny, I think it’s time you got out of the sun,” a familiar voice said kindly.</p>
<p>Danny groaned, opening his eyes to explain to Lou that he was old enough to decide when to get out of the sun. His words died in his mouth when he opened his eyes.</p>
<p>“Wha? What are you doing here?” Danny blurted when he managed to make sense of what he was seeing.</p>
<p>Steve smiled from his position crouching at Danny’s side. “I’m making sure that you finish your nap out of the sun.”</p>
<p>Danny frowned, barely resisting the impulse to rub his face. He’d made that mistake more than once in the last few days and it hadn’t been pleasant. “Didn’t you have a plane to catch?”</p>
<p>Steve lifted a hand to his forehead. “Damn, I knew there was something I was forgetting!” he teased.</p>
<p>Danny frowned, trying to sit up straighter. “Oh, come on! Don’t be an idiot!” Danny’s indignation would have been more evident if he hadn’t been ranting around a yawn.</p>
<p>Steve chuckled, pulling at Danny’s arm to get him on his feet. “Come on, Danno. I’ll explain, but once you’re inside and we got some water and meds into you.”</p>
<p>Danny groaned, part in annoyance and part in discomfort. He let Steve lead him back inside and sat quietly on the couch while Steve got him his meds and a glass of water.</p>
<p>Steve left everything on the coffee table and sat on the couch by Danny’s side, watching him quietly.</p>
<p>Danny didn’t even look at the meds, but took a sip of water, finally turning to look at his partner. “Alright, are you planning on explaining any time this year?”</p>
<p>Steve shrugged, trying to look casual. “There’s not much to explain, to be honest. I didn’t really feel like going,” he said, motioning to the meds on the coffee table. “Now, why don’t you take those? You were due about an hour ago, and Junes said you didn’t want to take them.</p>
<p>Danny looked around. “Where did Junior go?” he deflected. “Did you kick everyone out? I could hear Lou from where I was sitting,” he explained, wanting Steve to know that he was not as sneaky as he thought he was. “Besides, Tani went out to check on me, I guess she thought I’d be moping about you leaving,” he said with a shrug.</p>
<p>“And you weren’t moping?” Steve asked, completely ignoring the other questions.</p>
<p>Danny looked straight at Steve. “Nah, you get used to it after a while.”</p>
<p>Steve squirmed a bit on his seat, looking away. “I didn’t kick anyone out. They decided to leave. I guess they think we need to talk,” he said, turning to look at Danny again.</p>
<p>Danny snickered. “Of course they do,” he deadpanned, leaning back on the couch with a wince. “So, talk,” he motioned for Steve to start talking.</p>
<p>Steve leaned back as well, turning to look at Danny. “I don’t really know where to start,” he said with a shake of his head.</p>
<p>Danny chuckled. “Okay, you could start by explaining why you are back here, when you had a plane to catch?”</p>
<p>Steve had to think about his answer. “I didn’t feel like going?” he finally said with a smile.</p>
<p>Danny was not amused. “I’m going to need a little more than that,” he said drily.</p>
<p>Steve sighed. “You know what I said before, about my father’s case bringing me here, and making me stay?”</p>
<p>Danny grew serious, turning to look at the coffee table. “Yeah,” he said with a small nod.</p>
<p>“Well,” Steve continued, “I used that as a terrible excuse to leave,” he said with a shrug.</p>
<p>Danny turned to look at him in surprise. “What?”</p>
<p>“I mean,” Steve explained, “it did bring me to the island, and it kept being a distraction. It was one thing after another, with my mother and everything she did, and with Joe and his part on the whole mess,” he paused, trying to find the words to explain. “What I’m trying to say is that it made it very easy to keep moving. And if I kept moving, I didn’t have to stop and actually deal with everything that happened,” he finished with a shrug.</p>
<p>“Ah,” Danny said, not really surprised by Steve’s revelation. “It doesn’t explain why you’re back here, though,” he said with a small shrug.</p>
<p>Steve nodded in agreement. “I guess I figured it was time to stop moving.”</p>
<p>Danny tensed at his side. “Listen, I know I made a sorry sight back when you were leaving. I don’t do well with goodbyes, and I whined about you leaving when I should have just kept my mouth shut and wish you a good trip. It doesn’t mean that I want you to stay here and watch me take ten minutes to hobble across the room while you could be halfway to Moldova to find your destiny.”</p>
<p>Steve looked deeply confused for a second. “Moldova?”</p>
<p>Danny shook his head, waving his hands around as much as his injuries allowed him. “What do I know? Moldova, Timbuktu, Wisconsin, you never said where the hell you were going!”</p>
<p>Steve took a deep breath, trying to remind himself of the point he was trying to make. “Listen, wherever I was running off to, I think I realized I was running for the wrong reasons, maybe,” he said, wondering if he was making any sense.</p>
<p>“How’s that?” Danny stopped arguing, but he didn’t really look like he understood.</p>
<p>Steve took a moment to think on the right way to say what he wanted to say. “Well, I think I realized that when bad things happen, my way of dealing with them is to start moving right away. Keep myself busy and in motion, so that by the time I finally stop, everything is kind of in the background,” he said, turning to see if Danny was following.</p>
<p>Danny just motioned for him to continue, not looking at all surprised by Steve’s revelation.</p>
<p>“So, it’s probably not news to you, but there were times when stuff happened to you, that I’ve tried to get you to use the same approach. To get you moving, and hopefully get you to stop thinking, sort of speak,” Steve explained.</p>
<p>Danny shook his head in amusement. “I’m completely in shock by your revelation,” he deadpanned. “Still doesn’t explain why you’re back here.”</p>
<p>Steve looked down at his hands. “I’m a mess Danny. I’m dealing, or not dealing with far too much shit, and on top of that, you were hurt, and I felt responsible for it,” Steve started, only to be interrupted by Danny.</p>
<p>“I’ve told you one hundred times that it wasn’t your fault, babe,” Danny tried to comfort him.</p>
<p>Steve nodded, but still wouldn’t look at Danny. “I know that, but it is a fact that Daiyu Mei took you because you’re very important to me. So yes, I felt responsible that you were injured, and I wanted to help you get better, only this time we couldn’t just move to try to deal with it,” he said with a shrug.</p>
<p>Danny was quiet for a couple of minutes until he finally voiced his thoughts. “You could still leave, you know? I know I said it sucked, and that I felt like you were leaving me, but I don’t want to be the reason you feel you can’t leave,” he said quietly.</p>
<p>“That’s the thing, Danno,” Steve said, turning to look at Danny. “I felt useless. I didn’t feel like I could go back to work, doing what I always did wasn’t really working for me anymore, and I had no idea how to help you, so I figured I had to leave.”</p>
<p>Danny looked at him in surprise. “You’re an idiot.”</p>
<p>Steve chuckled. “I’ve been told that on more than one occasion.”</p>
<p>Danny shook his head, in disbelief. “So? What made you change your mind?”</p>
<p>Steve looked away. “I’ve been doing everything wrong, I thought I had to-” he stops himself, taking a deep breath. “I’ve never made you soup.”</p>
<p>Danny sputtered in confusion. “What?”</p>
<p>Steve shook his head, trying to explain himself. “Do you remember when Gracie was recovering from her accident?” At Danny’s unimpressed look (it clearly said “Of course I remember, Steven), Steve clarified, “The first day when I dragged you back to work. Do you remember that I stopped by to say hello?”</p>
<p>Danny nodded, so Steve continued. “Well, Gracie asked me to get you out of the house. She said that you were driving her mad, and that I had to get you out. I remember her saying that there was ‘so much soup!’, and I knew exactly what she was talking about!” Steve argued, trying to make his point.  “You left your home to park yourself here after we came back from DC, equipped with enough soup to feed a whole army! Even Junior knows what your matzo ball soup tastes like! You did the same thing after North Korea and after you went to get me to Afghanistan,” he explained. “Meanwhile, I’ve never made you soup.”</p>
<p>Danny interrupted with a snort. “That’s not a bad thing, Babe. Maybe there’s a good reason why you’ve never made soup.”</p>
<p>Steve resisted the impulse to roll his eyes. “What I’m trying to say is that when bad things happen, you stick around. You stay close, you make soup and pancakes, you sit quietly watching a game, even when I say that I don’t want any company!” Steve argued. “All of this time I’ve been thinking that I’m helping by making you move, so when I couldn’t do that, I thought it was better for me to leave. But when I was on the way to the airport, I realized all I needed to do was to stay.”</p>
<p>Danny shook his head. “Steve, I really appreciate the sentiment, but I don’t want you to-”</p>
<p>“Before you finish that sentence, I’d like you to think if you felt like that all of the times you parked yourself on my couch after something happened to me.” Steve interrupted.</p>
<p>Danny sighed in annoyance, crossing his arms over his chest. “You wanted to get away from work,” he argued anyway.</p>
<p>“And I’m going to,” Steve agreed with a smile. “I don’t have any intentions to go back to work any time soon.”</p>
<p>“Things are not magically going to get better just because you stayed,” Danny continued to argue.</p>
<p>“You’re absolutely right, Danno. They were not going to magically get better just because I was away either,” Steve said with a shrug. “I guess I’ll have to find me a therapist,” he quipped with a smile. At Danny’s surprised look, he couldn’t resist to tease him. “Now that we’re talking about it, I think I remember you said once that you’d pay for my therapy, so I’ll make sure to get you the bill!”</p>
<p>Danny glared at him but didn’t resist when Steve put his arm around Danny’s shoulder and pulled him close. He rested his head on Steve’s shoulder. “You’re really not leaving?” he asked quietly.</p>
<p>Steve was quiet for a few seconds, which made Danny tense at his side. “Well, maybe in a month or two, if you’re up to it, we could take a short trip somewhere, we could even bring Charlie if Rachel is okay with it,” he smiled when he felt Danny relax at his side. “Other than that, no, I have no plans of leaving, not without you at least.”</p>
<p>Danny finally relaxed, so Steve pestered him until he took his meds and picked up the remote to look for a game they could watch.</p>
<p>They settled comfortably and he thought that Danny had nodded off when he spoke. “Steve? Can I ask you a favor?”</p>
<p>Steve didn’t even hesitate. “Anything, Danno. You know that.”</p>
<p>“Can you wait until I’m a little more mobile before you start trying to make me soup? I don’t want you to start improvising and end up having to try a bowl of spam soup or something worse,” Danny requested, shifting to settle more comfortably against Steve.</p>
<p>“Fair enough. There will be no soup experiments until you’re able to be there to supervise me,” he said with a relieved laugh.</p>
<p>Only a few minutes later Steve heard soft snores coming from Danny. He lowered the volume on the TV, trying not to move too much. He wasn’t planning on going anywhere after all.</p>
<p>  </p>
<p>The End</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The sleep talking thing was inspired by my brother, who answers random things while he's sleeping, and even answers his phone! I only used a bit of dramatic license! :D</p>
<p>Thank you for reading! I'd love to see what you think of this one!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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